The East Village

Today we drove into NYC and spent our day in the East Village. It was really neat and one of my favorite parts of the city so far. The East Village is in Manhattan, just north of the Lower East Side. It has an artistic vibe.  It has vintage book stores, poet cafes and artwork on every corner. It was really fun to walk around because there was so much to see.

One of the streets we were walking on had a mural painted for an advertisement for the NYC Ballet. 

We decided to take little man in our Ergo carrier instead of using the stroller.  It worked out SO WELL.  This might be the only way we carry him around NYC from now on.  He loved looking around and being at eye level with everyone. He was snuggled up against his dad on the walk and when we reached the restaurant he was all sweaty! It was also about 50 degrees today which made for a nice stroll.

Here is a photo of a cafe we passed.  The inside looked really cool.  The artwork on the side of the building is both paint and mosaic tiles. This is just one of many, there were a lot of places like this. So much to see!

We spent most of our time on St. Marks Place (8th Street) which had so many cool restaurants and cafes, I wish we could have tried them all! There were also a lot of street vendors selling trinkety items. I'm such a sucker for this type of shopping and if I would have had cash in my purse, I would've been there all day!

This photo was taken through a chain-link fence. It is a school yard where there was a movie being filmed.  No idea what movie but it was neat to see.  It looked pretty low-key like maybe something by NYU students? A lot of NYU students live in the East Village.  We saw them everywhere, some of them wearing crazy outfits!  I love seeing people sporting all types of fashion. I couldn't stop checking out girls' boots and bags!!

Here is one of the "mosaic lamp posts" that the East Village is famous for.

We had lunch at Hummus Place. It was SO GOOD.    It is an Israeli restaurant featuring, you guessed it, hummus! They've received some great NYC press (see here) and we were not disappointed!  

 In honor of my husband's late grandma, we ordered grape leave rolls.  She used to make them and they are his FAVORITE. ...and much to our surprise, these were some of the best we've had (second to hers, of course).  They were served warm and stuffed with rice (Grandma J's also had beef), flavored with lemon (just like Gma J's) but were served over a mint yogurt (this part was new). I liked the mint yogurt sauce, but the big guy would've liked it on the side.  We also tried Shakshuka Halumi and loved it.  It was (I think) spaghetti sauce with large pieces of red and green peppers, cooked tomatoes, huge pieces of goat cheese and eggs over-easy.  We used pita bread to scoop up every last drop!  (I plan to attempt recreating this recipe at home.)

We also ordered hummus and it too was spectacular.  The hummus was as smooth as butter. I've never seen it so smooth.  It was topped with chickpeas and the green sauce in the center was lemony (maybe lemon juice and parsley?). It was a great blend of flavors and served with piping hot, home-made pitas. The pita bread also melted in your mouth. I think I will be dreaming of this hummus for weeks (possibly years)!

Little man sipping on some water

 We passed a macaroon shop and I had to stop!  

They had a huge variety of flavors. I settled on a lemon one and a salted caramel with chocolate filling. They were really rich and fluffy.

Here is another example of art on every corner.   It is a combo of graffiti and Japanese artwork (I think??).

Lastly, we stopped at Milk Bar. I got a compost cookie.  It has pretzels, oatmeal, choc chips, butterscotch chips, nuts... a bunch of stuff. The hubs thought it was quite tasty, but I didn't realize it also had coffee ground in it.  I do not like coffee, at all. Or coffee flavored anything, ever. So, I ordered the wrong thing. I should have splurged and got the "crack pie" but I was trying to practice self-control and not order everything in the entire bakery. Lesson learned.

Here is one last photo as we were waiting to pick up our car from the parking garage.  Such a sweet little face.  He was the best baby today.  He was happy and friendly, waving at strangers and chatting up a storm.  He was an angel at the restaurant and slept in the car on the short trip there and back. He is so laid-back and cheery.  I think it was partly due to the fact that he was on his dad's back instead of stuck in the stroller.

We have really been trying to take advantage of our proximity to the city and have had a lot of fun exploring. Each neighborhood has it's own identity and so much culture. Where should we go next??